The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to imaging systems, and more particularly to methods and system for displaying segmented images.
Segmentation is commonly used to outline objects and/or regions within three-dimensional (3D) image volumes. For example, 3D image volumes may be segmented for surgical planning, for radiation planning, and/or for general object identification. Typically, at least some of the segmented slices are displayed as two-dimensional (2D) images. However, viewing the 2D images or slices of the segmented volume to ascertain a size or dimension of the object may be tedious and time consuming.
For example, a single 2D image may be for example, approximately 3 mm thick. For a focal tumor, looking at the segmentation in the plane defined by the location of the tumor may be sufficient to enable the user to perform surgical planning, radiation planning, and/or for general object identification. For an extended tumor or a tumor having an ill-defined shape, the tumor may extend beyond the boundaries of the tumor shown in the single 2D image. More specifically, the user may view the single 2D image and assume that the full extent of the tumor is shown. However, the tumor may appear to be smaller, larger, or have a different shape in different 2D images in parallel planes. If the full extent of the segmentation is not manually checked by the user in all planes that contain tumor as defined by the segmentation, there is a potential for error in reporting of, for example, the tumor mean value and/or the tumor volume. Further, the maximum value of the tumor may be defined by a nearby high-uptake structure and not actually within the tumor itself. Accordingly, to verify the full extent of the tumor, and perform analysis of the tumor, the user typically displays and reviews numerous 2D images. However, manually displaying and reviewing numerous 2D images is time consuming. Moreover, the difficulty and tediousness of displaying numerous 2D images, one at a time, may require a greater amount of user input than is desired.